Robin Hood

It has long been an established fact that Walt Disney’s animated classic films were not written by Disney studios. In my 35 year old life time I have seen 44 animated Disney classic titles come to the silver screen and heard they come from various origins of work. Such as Grimm’s Fairy tails,(Snow White) Hans Christian Anderson (The Little Mermaid) and Rudyard Kipling. (The Jungle Book) No title in their repertoire may be more obvious of this fact than this movie their 21st animated gem. Robin Hood and his band of merry men has seen many big and small screen formats including a little known TV Show created by Mel Brooks. Well this outing was no exception. The opening scene is a rightous example of such a n established decree. We see Little John and Robin Hood frolicing in a watering hole. The have obviously already met (unlike other adaptations) and been close friends for some time. Since such Disney motion pictures are made mostly for children with limited attention spans I am willing therefore to take this truism for granted. It gives the audience that chance to jump right in to the story line and no need to waste time on such mundane plot points such as introductions or even character development. I mean After all we established that it is Disney and therefore purloined why bother. Thus being said This one hour and twenty three minute adventure was cute. This bear and snake seem “borrowed” from Jungle Book. (their 19th picture) but what the hey. In this adaption Robin Hood must out fox a wolf in Sheriff’s clothing to bring money to the poor in th land of Nottingham. This was the first time this old story was brough to the big screen and perhaps the most enjoyavle. Granted it doesn’t have much to choose from the two most memorable options are a poorly written spoof starring an accent less Kevin Costner and the titular character and an even worse a “homage” to thus said spoof whose script was horribly penned we can hardly call it writing. (also from the desk top of Mel Brooks) In retrospect this film version wasn’t all that bad. Well guess what true believers it was not so hot either. I enjoyed it on a lonely Friday morning before a two job 12 hour work day. But that may be only in comparison to it previously viewed predecessors and in retrospect to the long day up coming. Grade C+